Showing posts with label Ratzinger. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ratzinger. Show all posts

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Cardinal Ratzinger: "The One who is to come will have the traits of the Jesus who has already come"

A while back I read the following quote by the then Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, and then I couldn't find it again for a while. I recently looked it up again and found some articles on it and the original document from which the quote is taken. Following is the link to the original Vatican document and then the quote from it which really bothered me, as it seems to say that Ratzinger believes that the Messiah who is to come is not the same person as the Messiah who came 2000 years ago, but will have the same traits as He did. Following the quote are some more links discussing the document and the quote.
Does Pope Benedict believe in the second coming of Jesus Christ, or is he looking for another Messiah? Will he lead those who trust in him to follow 'another christ' who is not Jesus Christ?


Document: "The Jewish People and Holy Scriptures in the Christian Bible"

"Jewish messianic expectation is not in vain. It can become for us Christians a powerful stimulant to keep alive the eschatological dimension of our faith. Like them, we too live in expectation. The difference is that for us the One who is to come will have the traits of the Jesus who has already come and is already present and active among us." (n.21)

Here is an article on the web page of Sacred Heart University that discusses the document and some of the reactions to it. However, they don't seem to be worried about the strange wording which bothered me and a few others.


Here are some more links about the quote and the document:
http://www.fivedoves.com/letters/apr2005/donnad425-1.htm

http://zenit.org/article-3425?l=english

Monday, November 02, 2009

The Pope's Push for a One-World Religion by Mike Gendron

I found another good article by Mike Gendron (see the post below called 'Eat My Flesh and Drink My Blood') called 'The Pope's Push for a One-World Religion' in which Gendron warns about the Vatican's strategy to unite all Christendom under papal control and goes on further to warn that the Vatican doesn't stop at trying to unite Christendom but is working to 'bring ALL religions under the power and influence of the papacy.' Here are two excerpts from the article, but please read the entire article at the link above.

The Vatican’s Strategy

It is indeed disturbing to see so many evangelicals unaware of the Vatican’s strategy for bringing the world under the dominion of the papacy. The Vatican has made a concerted effort since 1965 to bring their "separated brothers’ back home to "holy mother the church." In his 1995 encyclical Et Unum Sint, Pope John Paul II said he intends "to promote every suitable initiative...to increase the unity of all Christians until they reach full communion" and "to encourage the efforts of all who work for the cause of unity." The pope’s stated desire is "to gather all people and all things into Christ, so as to be for all—an inseparable sacrament of unity... expressed in the common celebration of the Eucharist." During a week of prayer for Christian unity Pope John Paul II said, "I gladly take this opportunity to call the attention of all believers to the ecumenical commitment that marked VC II. The council rightly defined the division among Christians as a scandal. The council Fathers felt the need to beg pardon of God and of their brethren for the sins committed against unity." He asked Catholics "to cultivate an authentic spiritual ecumenism" through the Virgin Mary [not through the Lord Jesus]. The success of the pope’s push for unity can be seen by the announcement made last year by the Archbishop of Canterbury. He urged all Christians to recognize the Pope as the supreme authority of a new global church (6/99 CRN News). In a document called The Gift of Authority, he describes the Pope as a "gift to be received by all the churches." It would do us all well to heed the words of C.H. Spurgeon, "Ignorance has been one of the grand agents of Popery ever since her establishment; by it, the eyes of men have been so blinded that they can scarcely discern between good and evil, and follow implicitly any guide even until they fall into the ditch of perdition."

The Vatican’s ecumenical movement goes beyond the unity of all professing Christians. Their strategy is to bring all religions under the power and influence of the papacy. Pope John Paul II has been traveling the world to build bridges to all non-Christian religions. In a recent speech he said, "Christians and Muslims, we meet one another in faith in the one God...and strive to put into practice...the teaching of our respective holy books. Today, dialogue between our two religions [Roman Catholicism and Islam] is more necessary than ever. There remains a spiritual bond which unites us and which we must strive to recognize and develop." Even Mother Theresa had the ecumenical spirit as noted from her book Servants of Love. She stated, "we went every day to pray in some temple or church. The Archbishop gave us permission to do so. We prayed with the Jews, the Armenians, the Anglicans, the Jains, the Sikhs, the Buddhists, and the Hindus. It was extraordinary. All hearts united in prayer to the one true God."


Notice the statement "He asked Catholics "to cultivate an authentic spiritual ecumenism" through the Virgin Mary [not through the Lord Jesus]." This is obviously an older article because it speaks of JP2 as the present pope, but Pope Benedict XVI apparently is continuing on similar course. The fact that the 'Virgin Mary' is to be the uniting spirit of this movement is significant. People of many religions revere the Mary of Roman Catholicism and have been seeing Marian apparitions that teach them to honor her and build churches for her and that she will bring peace to the world, etc. This is a lying spirit because, if one reads the things it has said, it does not give glory to God alone and does not speak according to what is taught in the Bible, God's inspired word.
Notice also the statement 'In a document called The Gift of Authority, he describes the Pope as a "gift to be received by all the churches."' We would do well to remember that the Trojan Horse was also a gift.
In a related article, the new pope has recently made a bold move to extend papal authority over Anglican Christians.